Inline LPG mixing solution

One Portuguese customer's need to mix two liquid pipelines just before filling the cylinders led to an entire new invention in KC. Always trying to solve every customer's problem, we developed an inline mixing solution that mixes two gasses in order to obtain just the desired mixture of gasses for this particular customer to export to Spain - as the butane specification in Spain is quite different from that of Portugal. The solution offers several benefits for the Portuguese filler; besides solving the problem of automatically mixing butane and propane, the customer needed a system that could document the proportion of gasses in the cylinders in order to comply with authority demands.

Avoid the potentially dangerous manual adding of odorant

As a safety measure, an odorant is added to the gas in order to detect a gas leak by the sense of smell. The present standard procedure of adding odorant manually to the cylinders, however, leaves the fillers with little feeling of the exact amount of odorant and they have little choice but to add an overdose of the odorant just to be on the safe side towards the authorities as well as the customers. The inline mixing system, on the contrary, is capable of adding an exact adjustable amount of odorant along with the gas and subsequently document it, thus creating economic benefits by only adding the needed amount of odorant while securing safety.

The most economical blending proportion at all times

The possibility of being able to mix any blending proportion will result in the most economical blend because it allows the fillers to purchase the cheapest types of gasses at any given time and mix them to their own benefit. As prices on different gas types e.g. butane/propane are not identical, it will allow fillers to make savings.

Some countries run on a fixed mixture of propane and butane throughout the year because it is clearly the easiest and less expensive solution - but with the new inline mixer, these countries will be able to slacken this requirement and adjust the blend over the course of the year, as it will be easy to fill cylinders with an exact mix between butane/propane directly at the filling line or truck loading line.

Accurate logging towards authorities

In the majority of countries worldwide, suppliers of filled LPG cylinders are required to document the mixture proportion towards the authorities. With an automatic inline LPG mixing system, the LPG fillers will now be capable of not only controlling the mixture of the gas types precisely, but they will also be able to document the exact blending proportion afterwards.

The system logs and stores all data which enables the filler to go back in time and analyse the mixture and subsequently make the necessary adjustments. He will be able to document any action made within the system at any given time.
In addition, the inline mixing system has a high degree of security built in. Being fully automatic, it renders unnecessary manual weighing and check weighing, thereby causing fewer human errors.

System useful for several purposes

The inline LPG mixer has been tried and tested thoroughly in daily operation and has proven to be a safe and efficient solution and it requires very little engineering as opposed to other alternatives on the market.

Furthermore, the newly developed mixing system is quite versatile as it has several application possibilities, not only within the LPG filling industry. The mixing solution can be adapted to other LPG industries and gas applications, such as auto gas, tank trucks and spray cans.

The LPG mixer is approved according to the following standards: CE-approved, ATEX approved, PED approved.

Customer testimonial

Since installing the mixer in September 2014 for the Portuguese customer, CLC, the filler has benefited from the solution because it meets three key criteria: It is economical, easy to operate and requires few maintenance tasks.